More questions

[ronm10]

Sorry if I ask a lot of questions. I am rather new at the restoration of old cars.

What is the best/easiest way to remove 50 years of dirt, oil and grime from the suspension parts? (they are still on the car) Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with solvent, a wire brush and a tooth brush for the small places. Although it eventually does the job it is messy and slow going. Just hoping to find an easier alternative.

Thanks,

Ron

[Guest msawdey]

If the accumulation is thick, I tend to get out my jack knife and carve it off first, then attack with solvent. A collection of old screwdrivers, various-sized putty knives, old table knives, all will help get into the various nooks and crannies where crud clings. The foamy products like Gunk degreaser seem to me to make a lot of "apparent" grime float away--but then most of it is still there when one gets rid of the foam. I just did a rear axle where I tried using the power washer on it. That actually did blast off a lot of the crud, although it would have been more difficult to use on something like the suspension system under the car, and one would also run more risk of blasting water into places where one didn't want it (I taped over the axle vent and pinion seal before blasting it). In summary, I don't know of a royal road to a clean underside, if it involves parts that are attached to the car and are going to remain there. If something can be removed, and won't suffer from immersion, then the easiest thing is just to dunk it in solvent and do something else for awhile, while the solvent does its thing. An intermediate approach is the sort of parts washer that shops sometimes use: a sink with a supply of solvent and a pump that keeps recirculating it, over the piece you're cleaning and through a a filter. It pumps, you scrub. Again, this only works for things you can dismount and scrub by themselves.

[55PackardGuy]

Ron,

If you can find a steam cleaner, man is that slick! It'll blast away almost anything and won't do any kind of damage that I know of. I think you have to find someone with the equipment, though, as I don't believe there is any portable or rentable equipment.

A pressure washer may be of great help, too, but this does not give the grease-cutting of steam, and may be more likely to damage stuff if it gets away from you.

Just a couple of thoughts--no personal experience but I've seen steam in action and it is amazing and fast. Pressure washer is kind of a no-brainer to use and rentable, but I've never tried it on a car.

[ronm10]

Thanks for the ideas. I will see about finding someplace with steam. I like that idea. I chipped, scrapped and scrubbed to where I could at least see all the zirks, but bright and totally clean would look great.

My next project is a 41 John Deere B with even more accumulated crud so having something lined up may have future benefits.